I expect, seeing as how this -is- my first attempt at mapping in a serious way, that there will be very large amounts of criticism, as well as people probably going, "lol this sucks". All of that will be greatly appreciated, as every bit of criticism I receive will only end up making me grow and progress as a level design artist.

I do realize (as StickZero has told me) that everyone's first map is terrible, so...here's to MY terrible map to start off my mapping 'career' as it were.

I'm pretty sure that in this map, there will probably be loads of balance issues and things of that nature, but really...I've not ever looked into TF2 level design, so maybe after playtesting and being able to realize what balance issues there are to look for with TF2, I can make this whole project a learning experience, and my next map (should there be one) will be considerably better.

Anyway, thanks in advance for all criticism I receive, and I hope to be around for playtests!

Yeah, I was worried about that. Not sure if I should just turn up the ambient lighting or...I dunno what. I guess I'll figure it out when it's playtested, if it's bright enough to -be- playtested. When I run around in-game, it's really not all that super-dark. Maybe it's just the screenshots having a different gamma or something from in-game?

Add a filter for each team and set each to accept criteria that meet that specification (basically so that anyone on that team is o.k., anyone on the other team is not o.k.). Then, where it says filter in your trigger_multiples strewn about the map, type in or select the filter that applies to that team.
So, for the trigger multiple leading to blue spawn, where it says 'Filter' in the options menu, I might have blue_filter, where the filter team is set to blue, and the filter is set to accept everything that meets the criteria.

Just fixed the filter issue, and it does seem like the spawns are sorta dark, not sure about mid, really. I guess we'll see what happens when it gets playtested with people, maybe until I start detailing, I could just alter the ambient light and raise it a little for now, if it's a problem?

So, after PakRat managed to leave out model textures and stuff, I decided to use Map Analyst to package things this time around, and I added some geometry to the raised buildings to keep players from getting under them.

Well, as much as I would love to try to fix what I feel is probably a huge quantity of layout issues and balance problems, etc...as well as not really liking how this map ended up looking, I'm probably scrapping this map attempt in favor of trying something else instead, with a different theme.

I think even if I were to persevere and keep working on this map, it would eventually end up needing a layout reworking anyway, and that's just made harder by my less than amazing brushwork in hammer.

I feel like I've learned a lot just doing what I've done with this map, so hopefully my second attempt will fare quite a bit better.

I've already got a theme and name picked out for this second map, so...I guess we'll see where it goes.